Cowser Family Farm: August 2014

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Alyvia is 7!

I vividly remember the night of Alyvia's one week birthday. It was bedtime, I had laid her in the bassinet beside our bed all swaddled tight with a hat on her head even though it was August (we had a window air conditioning unit in our room because we lived in our old farmhouse with no central air). I got really emotional and was so sad that she was already a whole 7 days old. I knew, even then, that before I could blink she would be 7 years old....and now here we are. Her 7th birthday. I feel like I barely blinked. That perfect little baby is now a beautiful little girl who is quickly growing up faster than we'd like. She loves to create art projects, give to others, dance and swim. She is not afraid to say how much she loves her family and I hope she is always like that. She is the BEST big sister you could ask for. She has more patience than I do with her younger brother and most often does what he wants to make him happy. She loves her baby sister and dotes on her. She's amazing and I probably don't do a good enough job of telling her that. Mental note to work on that more :) We love her and are so proud of the little girl she is!

We started her birthday celebration more than a week before her birthday! The last 4 years, my mom has taken her to American Girl in Chicago for her birthday present. It started to just get her first AG doll and it has morphed into a yearly tradition :) Alyvia loves it and looks forward to it every year!

Livi wanted her toes painted before we went...Baby needed hers done too <3

I always love driving into the city on Lake Shore

She brought along Caroline this year :)

and Kendall!

Dropping Caroline off at the AG salon

After we dropped Caroline off at the salon, we realized she wouldn't be able to join us for lunch :( So we made a (very) quick trip around the store and grabbed Rebecca to join us-her birthday present from Mom and Dad!

We picked her up right after lunch, freshly styled!

Nana and her girls (poor baby was teething bad!)

We had a great day in the city and I love that we do it every year....maybe Kendall can have her first trip next year!
Our next celebration was the day before her birthday. We had her friends party at noon and then her family party at 4. It was a crazy busy day, but it turned out great. Livi decided a long time ago that she wanted to have a Frozen party and she wanted to be Elsa, and she stuck with it, so we ran with it!

Her Daddy loves her so much, he strung lights and tulle outside the night before

We went with Olaf's summer for the food, IN SUMMERRRRRRR!!

Rylie, Livi, Reagan and Cole

Her actual birthday was Monday the 28th. We found out a lot of places are closed on Mondays during the summer! We finally decided to go to Wildlife Prairie Park and we met our friends Kristin and Lizzie there. Right as we parked, Livi said "Hey Mom, look!" Her birthday buddy Dylan was there with his family too! (His mom Stephanie is my best friend from grade school, h.s. and forever! We had our first babies at the same hospital on the same day!)

Alyvia & Dylan are 7!

Cole, Lizzie & Livi

Someday they may all look at the camera!

That evening we let Alyvia choose where to go out to eat. Her new favorite restaurant is Chilis :)

The birthday girl in her new scarf from Aunt Anne

Colson and his "brakwi" :) The kid doesn't eat well at all, but LOVES broccoli!

I hope Alyvia had a very special birthday! We love her so much! I hope time slows down now....we'll be celebrating her 17th birthday before we know it....Love you Livi Lou!

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Lake of the Ozarks 2014

Each July we go on family vacation with my parents, my brothers, SIL and nephew. We've gone to Lake Ozark, MO for many years and rented the same house for the last 4 years. The only change this year was we stayed for 10 days instead of just 7-and it was fabulous!! We took off from home the morning of the 2nd, boat in tow!

We stopped at Cracker Barrel for a yummy breakfast, it's always our first favorite part of vacation!

After Colson asked us roughly 500 times if we were there yet, he finally fell asleep about 1 hour before we got there!

We arrived!!

We always put the boat in at the state park and then Alan takes it over to the rental house. I was left to park the trailer all by myself this year-ahh! I took a picture and texted it to Alan to make sure he thought it was okay :)

Once we finally got the boats to the house and the luggage unloaded, the babies were beat!

The view from our screened in porch....I'm relaxing just looking at it.

We had a quiet first day and the kids spent some time swimming in our cove. Shane, Lindsey and my dad came that day too! The 4th was our first day to really get out on the lake! A friend posted her daughter's hairstyle that morning, so Livi and I recreated it-it turned out so cute!!

Then it was time to get out on the water!!!

We anchored in one of our favorite coves and did what we do best-NOTHING! Lots of relaxing and floating, kids swimming....perfect vacation! That evening we did sparklers on the driveway with the kids and then the boys created our own fireworks show off our dock, they did a fantastic job!